Manager says Jon Jones-Dan Henderson not happening at UFC 149

Malki Kawa, who knows the future of UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones almost better than anyone else, is fairly certain his fighter will not return to action this summer as many have speculated. As such, the likelihood of Jones defending his title against Dan Henderson in the main event of UFC 149 is highly unlikely.

“He will not be fighting in July,” said Kawa in a recent interview with MMAFighting. “It’s just probably a little too soon. There’s been no timetable yet, but July probably isn’t going to happen. Jon’s going to take a little time to himself, and then he’ll get back into it.”

Jones earned another successful title-defense by scoring a decision against Rashad Evans two weeks ago at UFC 145. The fight was the first “Bones” had gone the distance in after holding onto his belt in prompter fashion against ex-champions Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Lyoto Machida.

Henderson has been sitting on the sidelines awaiting his shot at the young champion since defeating Mauricio “Shogun” Rua last year.

UFC President Dana White mentioned Jones-Henderson as a possibility for the card, but did say he had no idea if Jones would be ready to go again that quickly. Jones has said he would like to fight at least four times this year though it seems unlikely at this point.